My Name is Abu Salem

  In the 1970s, the Indian diaspora in Norway comprised a few hundred or so people, and lived as a close-knit community. Upon arriving in his new country, Dr Bedi quit his medical practice and launched his own garment business in the city of Drammen, forty-five kilometres from Norway’s capital, Oslo. Dr Bedi pampered his daughter Monica and son Bobby. The siblings grew up on a heavy dose of Bollywood through video cassettes of Hindi films—perhaps their only connect with their country and people back home.

  In 1992, at the age of seventeen, Monica moved to the UK to study English literature at Oxford University. Initially, her parents protested as they had given her a sheltered upbringing. But she wanted to live life on her own terms. London was beautiful. Monica grew in those years into a strong-willed woman. But she got tired of her studies soon and yearned to give up the course. Giving up her studies meant losing her ticket to freedom. But one holiday to Mumbai turned her life around.

  In Mumbai, Monica enrolled herself at the Gopi Kishan Dance Classes to learn Kathak. One day, film icon Manoj Kumar dropped by on a personal errand. As a child, Monica had watched Manoj Kumar in Roti Kapda Aur Makaan and Upkaar. He had aged since, but his charm and star quality were still intact. Manoj Kumar reportedly said to Monica that her face was the perfect blend of the actresses of the 1950s and 1960s and the novelty needed for Indian cinema today.

  This sparked the young woman’s ambitions. She was turning eighteen, had a flawless complexion, an attractive figure, a seductive smile and, at a height of five feet five inches, she had all the qualities needed to be a star. Monica also later claimed that Manoj Kumar wanted to launch her in a movie with his son Kunal.

  She immediately called her parents and told them that she wanted to try her luck in the film industry. They tried to dissuade her, telling her that Bollywood was notorious for exploiting women and no place for a cultured young woman like her. But Monica had now seen her future in films and no one could stop her from giving it a shot.

  When the parents realized that they would not be able to convince their obstinate daughter, Shakuntala decided to shift base to Mumbai. Monica had her portfolio made and took the plunge. She had heard that there were two ways to achieve success in the world of cinema—either she would have to sleep her way through to major contracts or attend a lot of film events and draw the attention of the movie moguls. Monica later said in her interviews that she decided to attend Bollywood parties and events to get noticed.

  One of the parties she would attend was Subhash Ghai’s famous Holi get-together. Monica later claimed that she got lucky as she bumped into Rakesh Roshan during the celebrations. She had seen some of his films in her childhood and was surprised to hear that he was launching a film—Karan Arjun—and needed a fresh face opposite Salman Khan. He insisted that she visit him at his Santa Cruz office as he was considering casting her in the role.

  Roshan also gave her his office address and phone number, but Monica, sceptical of his intentions, did not turn up for the audition. She thought that he was an old-time actor and wondered how he could launch her in the movies. Monica would later admit that she had no clue Rakesh Roshan was already a successful film-maker. In any case, she never contacted him again. The role eventually went to Mamta Kulkarni and the film went on to become the second highest grossing film of 1995 after Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge. Monica’s snub would prove to be one of the costliest blunders of her career. Months passed and Monica had no film offers.

  In the meantime, bandits attacked her family in Chabbewal and brutally killed her grandparents. This left her mother devastated, forcing her to return to Norway. Alone in Mumbai, Monica was now in a door-die situation. Casting aside her pride, she decided to go out seeking work. This was how she met the controversial film-maker Mukesh Duggal who launched her in his film Suraksha. Despite a decent star cast of Saif Ali Khan and Suniel Shetty, the film tanked at the box office and with it, Monica’s dreams.

  But Duggal did not give up on Monica. He tried to promote her in a big way and continued to give her bit roles in his films. Their frequent collaborations fuelled rumours of an affair and Monica was labelled as ‘Duggal’s darling’, a tag she detested but could do little about. The director was widely known for his links to the underworld and of being especially close to Abu Salem. On one of his trips to Dubai with Monica, he introduced her to Salem.

  Monica explained later that she was introduced to ‘Arsalan Ali’, a Pakistani event manager based in Dubai, who organized shows for Bollywood personalities across the globe. It is possible, given her ignorance of Rakesh Roshan’s stature as a film-maker, that she did not know that Salem was a gangster.

  Monica and ‘Arsalan’ had an immediate connection and began talking to each other regularly. Soon, Monica began to look forward to his calls every day. She realized that although she spoke to him in English, the suave-looking man could not say very much more than ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’. After befriending Arsalan, Monica began receiving roles in some Telugu films. She had no idea that Salem was behind these. However, despite his ‘help’, she was unable to make a mark in the industry.

  Then came another tragedy. In March 1997, Mukesh Duggal was shot dead by two gunmen outside his office in Andheri. Duggal was shot dead by Chhota Shakeel’s sharpshooters because Shakeel believed that the film-maker was his rival Chhota Rajan’s supporter and was laundering his money by making films. Shakeel had said so in an interview to the Indian Express on the night of the killing. But it later surfaced that Shakeel regretted killing Duggal—he was not aware of the late director’s friendship with Salem. Had Shakeel known that Duggal was a friend of the Company’s, he would have still been alive.

  With Duggal’s death, Monica had no godfather in the industry any more. Arsalan assured her that he would use his contacts in the film world. Monica did not take him seriously. But to her surprise, a host of B-grade film-makers and little-known producers started to make a beeline to sign Monica Bedi in their movies. It was almost a dream come true.

  Her films in this period included Ek Phool Teen Kaante, Tirchhi Topiwale, Mera Desh, Kalicharan, Zanjeer, Loh Purush and Kaala Samrajya. However, none of them made a splash at the box office, earning her the unfortunate description of a ‘heroine of B-grade movies’. Monica was confused about her lack of success, and blamed a hostile media. But she did not lose heart. Arsalan kept encouraging her, but she needed a stronger push, a bigger break, more prestigious banners, and interest from top directors or production houses. Monica was unhappy with mere survival—she wanted success at any cost.

  Seventeen

  The Don’s Darling

  MONICA’S INNOCENCE HAD CAPTIVATED SALEM’S HEART. Never before had he felt such a burning desire to help someone. Monica began making frequent trips to Dubai. She would meet him every day she was there, spending most of her time with him. Even when she was not in Dubai, Monica would call him frequently. Salem was drifting further and further away from Sameera and was being increasingly drawn to Monica’s charms. He still hadn’t told Monica about his true identity, worried as he was that it would drive her away.

  Men are peculiar animals. They never take responsibility for their infidelity and look for any justification to cheat. Salem was especially good at this. When he was having his many brief affairs or one-night stands with starlets, he rationalized that it was because they were far too beautiful to resist or that they had seduced him. He never saw himself as the seducer.

  When he fell in love with Monica, Salem came up with a totally different set of explanations. Sameera had distanced herself from him, he told himself. He needed someone to understand him and support him, and it was in Monica that he found this support. Those familiar with Salem’s ways knew that this was just another way of fooling Sameera, to justify his latest fling to his own conscience. But it was serious enough for Salem to begin contemplating divorce.

  For Sameera, Monica was no different from all those starlets who caught Salem’s fancy for a few weeks. She had always maintaine
d a stoic silence about Salem’s infidelities, understanding that loyalty was a virtue not known to him. Sameera thus never felt threatened by Monica or by Salem’s increasing fondness for her. However, she decided to make one last effort to save her marriage. No family is complete without a child and she wondered if perhaps her husband too harboured an unspoken desire for one. Perhaps a child would rekindle their romance.

  If in every marriage it is the woman who makes the most sacrifices and takes the most risks, in Sameera’s case this was doubly so. She had left her religion, her parents and her city for an outlaw of a husband who had no conception of fidelity. Sameera decided to make one more sacrifice and give the marriage another shot.

  Sadly, Sameera’s plan backfired. She went through her pregnancy on her own. Salem was never by her side and was completely oblivious towards her or her needs. When Sameera was eight months’ pregnant, she travelled to New Jersey, where her aunt lived, to deliver her child. She knew that she could not count on her husband for emotional support during the delivery. Returning to Mumbai was ruled out as she had been in the police’s wanted list since 1993. America seemed to be the safest place and it was also the country where Salem was trying to get a house for Sameera. On 30 August 1997, Sameera gave birth to a boy. He was named Amir. What hurt the new mother most was that Salem did not even take the trouble to travel to New Jersey to see his baby. Salem was too wrapped up in himself and in his growing relationship with Monica.

  Salem’s new relationship had another by-product—narcissism. He had always been vain and boastful. He considered himself very good-looking and loved attention of all kind. He was even derisively referred to as Paper Don in Dubai because he used to procure Indian newspapers that mentioned his name in the headlines, and would save the clippings. Later, Salem even admitted to the sleuths from the CBI that he had claimed credit for a lot of killings in Mumbai in which he was actually not involved.

  Now he became obsessed with his looks, spending hours looking at and examining himself—his skin, the crow’s feet under his eyes, his nose and so on. His nose, he had always felt, was imperfect, and he went under the knife and got himself a more angular nose. Salem also grew fond of manicures and pedicures, and his dressing table groaned under the weight of anti-ageing creams, skin lotions, herbal potions and other cosmetics. He began spending hours at the gym and even more in front of the mirror. Even when he was threatening his victims on the phone, he would check his reflection.

  Monica also cultivated his interest in branded clothes, sunglasses and shoes, and under her tutelage, Salem began to look slicker than he ever had. Soon, Salem was heard boasting to his friends that he was no less handsome than Salman Khan. He would claim that in different circumstances, he would have been competing with Salman in Bollywood as a leading man. People would smile at his delusional self-obsession, suspecting that it was Monica who had put such thoughts into his head.

  In any case, Salem was genuinely happy with Monica’s arrival in his life. His bosses and aides saw him fawning over her, including Anis who had still not got over his anger towards Salem. He decided to test the waters now and instructed Salem to send Monica over to him for a night. Anis knew that Salem’s relationship with Monica was hardly like that with other girls. She was the love of his life. Salem didn’t see her as a regular packet of chips to be passed around among friends. When Anis told Salem, ‘Kya item hai! Aaj raat mere paas bhej de,’ he broke his protégé’s heart.

  That was the final straw. Salem realized he could not work with this man any more. After everything he had done for Anis and all the efforts to please him despite the stiff competition from Shakeel, this really stung. It was time to make a clean break. As Salem put the finishing touches to his getaway, he made one alteration to his plan. While making a fake passport for himself and Sameera, he also organized for a second passport for Monica.

  The plan was to send wife and son ahead of him. Salem would take care of pending business in Dubai and join them. Sameera’s passport—ordered from Hyderabad—bore the name of Neha Asif Jafri, while his own passport had the distinctly different name of Ramil Kamil Malik. And, since he wanted to travel with Monica in tow, he got a similar-sounding name on her passport, Sana Kamil Malik. It only seemed apt that the wife’s name be similar to her husband’s.

  Salem may have got several fake passports for Sameera, but she never used any of them. She travelled to the US on the same Indian passport of Sabina Azmi, which had been issued from Lucknow and which she had used for escaping from Delhi to join Salem in Dubai in 1993. Sameera arrived in Gwinnett County in Georgia in September 1999 and moved to a house that Salem had bought for her. In Georgia, she was known as Sabina Azmi, the wife of Akil Azmi. Her son was called Amir Azmi. Finally, she thought she had a chance to start her life afresh.

  Eighteen

  A Starlet’s Rise

  MAFIA DONS ARE, BY AND LARGE, more partial to one-night stands and brief affairs, hardly ever entertaining the thought of a serious relationship. But Salem ventured into forbidden territory with Monica. Everyone around Salem was taken by surprise at this development, most of all Salem himself.

  He had bedded some of the most ravishing sirens from the film industry, including a major beauty queen. But Monica was different. She had neither won crowns at beauty pageants, nor was she a contender for top billing in films. But there was something irresistible about her. Something he had not seen in the ‘plastic’ divas of the film world.

  Salem wanted to marry her and take her with him to the USA. But before that, he wanted to ensure that Monica reached the top league of Indian actresses. He felt that once she became a successful actress, she would be beholden to Salem and would not refuse a marriage proposal. It’s impossible to know for sure how many people got calls from Salem and which of them agreed to his demands, but Monica did get her first big break—the sort she had been waiting for all her life.

  The film was called Jaanam Samjha Karo, scripted by Rajkumar Santoshi and directed by Andaleeb Sultanpuri, and released in April 1999. It had a star cast of big hitters like Salman Khan and Urmila Matondkar. Although Monica was touted as the second lead in the film and paired with Salman, she had only a minuscule role. It seemed quite evident that she was cast in a blink-and-miss appearance only to appease Salem and ward off his menacing calls.

  But Monica got what she wanted—an ascent from seedy banners and B-grade actors to sharing screen time with none other than Salman Khan. She was certain that this would perk up her future prospects. But Salem was disappointed with the movie and with Monica’s role in it. He knew the job of turning Monica into a star was far from over.

  The next big project that he landed for Monica was Jodi No. 1, directed by David Dhawan, with such top-line actors as Sanjay Dutt, Govinda and Twinkle Khanna. Ironically, Monica was paired with Sanjay, who had been given preferential billing over Govinda. However, Sanjay is believed to have been very upset with the casting of his romantic interest. He protested that if Govinda could get a top star like Twinkle, how come he was asked to work with a B-grade starlet like Monica Bedi? He considered quitting the movie, but one phone call made him change his mind.

  Sanjay was told in no uncertain terms that he had no option but to work with Monica and he was expected to be respectful to her—so much so that he was not even to hold her too firmly during the romantic scenes. Salem’s spine-chilling ultimatum was enough to make everyone on the sets wary. The result was that throughout the movie, Sanjay and Monica did not so much as gaze at each other lovingly, let alone display any physical chemistry. Sanjay was no longer working with Monica the actress; he was working with Monica, his bhabhi. The movie did average business on the strength of the comical pair of Sanjay–Govinda and because of Dhawan’s standing in the market.

  But for Monica, things had started looking up. She was being treated with respect and everyone wanted to please her. She had started enjoying her newfound respect, and basked in its glory. She was that much closer to being the superhit
actress she had always dreamed of becoming.

  Soon, Salem managed to get through to Rajiv Rai, one of the most respected directors in the industry, and forced him to sign Monica on for his next film. Rai had produced hits such as Tridev with Sunny Deol, Naseeruddin Shah, Madhuri Dixit and Jackie Shroff, and Mohra with Akshay Kumar and Suniel Shetty. Widely considered to be a big name in the industry, Rai was in the process of making Pyar Ishq Mohabbat with Kirti Reddy, Suniel Shetty and Arjun Rampal.

  There was no scope for another leading lady. But Salem had threatened Rai once in July 1997 and he knew that he had succeeded in frightening him. There was no way that Rai would refuse his ‘polite suggestion’. Rai buckled under the pressure and brought her into the film, but completely lost interest in the project. Released in September 2001, Pyar Ishq Mohabbat was a box office disaster and Rai lost a considerable amount of money on it. Since Monica did not have a substantial role in the film, Rai feared a backlash from Salem and thought it best to leave the city.

  Meanwhile, the media had got wind of Monica getting roles as a result of her association with Abu Salem. Journalists began investigating the threats received by the film-makers. The producers of Jodi No. 1 denied any duress in casting Monica and so did Rai. But the stories had begun appearing in the newspapers. Rai immediately shifted base and migrated to America.

  Rai’s migration to the US shook the industry, and Salem’s growing menace now forced them into action. They decided to approach the government and make a case for their safety. For the state government, it had also become a prestige issue as the business community had begun showing a lack of faith in the security system and preferred to move to some other city.